accessibility-audit

Accessibility audit

Stack-agnostic principles, concrete examples in React 19 and React Native. The standard is WCAG; the examples port to Vue/Svelte and native — the criteria don't change.

Version targets: React 19, React Native 0.81 (current stable); audited against WCAG 2.2 Level AA. Snippets grounded against Context7 (/reactjs/react.dev, /facebook/react-native) at authoring time — see references/snippets.md.

The core question

Every accessibility decision reduces to: can someone who doesn't see, hear, or use a mouse the way you do still perceive, operate, and understand this? If a feature only works with sight, a pointer, or a steady hand, it isn't done.

Principles

WCAG groups everything under four headings — content must be Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust (POUR). In practice:

• Semantics first, ARIA last. A real <button>, <a href>, <label>, or RN accessibilityRole gives you a role, a name, focus, and keyboard handling for free. ARIA only describes — it never adds behavior. No ARIA is better than bad ARIA.
• Everything operable by keyboard. Every interactive element must be reachable and actionable with Tab/Enter/Space/arrows, with a visible focus indicator. A div with onClick is none of those.
• Every control has an accessible name. Icon-only buttons, inputs, and images need a name assistive tech can announce (a visible <label>, aria-label, accessibilityLabel, or alt). Decorative images get an empty name so they're skipped.
• Don't lean on color or sense alone. Color, shape, or position can't be the only signal — pair them with text or an icon. Body text needs ≥ 4.5:1 contrast (≥ 3:1 for large text and for UI/graphics).
• Manage focus across state changes. Opening a dialog moves focus in and traps it; closing restores it to the trigger. Route changes move focus to the new heading. Never strand focus on a hidden element.
• Announce what changes silently. Async results, validation errors, and toasts must reach assistive tech via a live region (aria-live) or RN AccessibilityInfo.announceForAccessibility.
• Respect motion and motor needs. Honor the reduced-motion setting, and size touch/click targets ≥ 24×24 CSS px (WCAG 2.5.8) — 44pt iOS / 48dp Android in practice.
• Mobile parity. The same criteria hold in React Native; the difference is primitives — accessibilityRole/accessibilityLabel/accessibilityState instead of HTML and ARIA. See references/pitfalls.md.
• Show visual choices, don't describe them. When a decision is genuinely visual — a contrast or focus-state comparison — render the options for the user with the brainstorming visual companion (superpowers:brainstorming) and let them click, instead of asking in prose. "Which of these feels right?" is for the companion; "what should this do?" stays in the terminal.

How to use this skill

1. Run references/checklist.md (WCAG 2.2 AA, grouped by POUR) against the screen or component you're auditing.
2. Reach for a fix in references/snippets.md (labelled field, icon button, focus management, live region, RN roles, reduced motion).
3. Check references/pitfalls.md before you ship — most a11y bugs are on it.

Related

• Building the component itself → component-design
• Accessible forms, labels, and error messaging → forms-and-validation
• Motion that respects reduced-motion → animation-and-motion
• Color tokens and contrast → styling-systems
• Testing behavior via roles and names → frontend-testing
• Touch-target size and gestures on mobile → touch-interaction
• Comparing visual options with the user → superpowers:brainstorming (visual companion)